In many crop producing areas of the world there are reports of yield decline and loss of productive potential in soils. Little is known about the long term effects of sugarcane monocropping on changes in physical, chemical and biological properties of soils. The aim of this study was to quantify the physical and chemical condition of soils under sugarcane production in northern Kwazulu-Natal, a...

Chromolaena odorata (L.) King & Robinson (Asteraceae: Eupatorieae), a shrub of neotropical origin, is a primary threat to the conservation of biodiversity, and to pastoral and crop agriculture and forestry in the subtropical regions of South Africa. It invades much of the sugarcane growing areas in KwaZulu-Natal and thus impacts negatively on the South African sugar industry. The plant presents...

Leaf nutrients of sugarcane variety N16 are discussed and reasons for certain trends put forward. The fertilised versus non-fertilised treatment comparison showed that although where fertiliser was applied that leaf N, P and K were higher, Mn was also higher but Ca, Mg, Si, Zn and Fe were all lower. The trashed versus burnt treatments had a less drastic effect on leaf nutrient levels and it was...

Red stripe of sugarcane in Argentina is a bacterial disease caused by Acidovorax avenae. The genome sequence from the first isolate of this bacterium in Argentina is presented here. The draft genome of the A. avenae T10_61 strain contains 5,646,552 bp and has a G+C content of 68.6 mol%.

Cellulase production was evaluated in two reference strains (T. reesei Rut-C30 and T. reesei QM9414), two strains isolated from a sugarcane cultivation area (Trichoderma sp. IPT778 and T. harzianum rifai IPT821) and one strain isolated in a program for biodiversity preservation in São Paulo state (Myceliophthora thermophila M77). Solid state cultures were performed using sugarcane bagasse (C), ...

Successive transfer in synthetic medium of spores and mycelial fragments from original toxin-producing cultures of Helminthosporium sacchari results in attenuated cultures which do not produce the host-specific toxin helminthosporoside. When attenuated cultures are grown on material obtained from the water wash of sugarcane leaves susceptible to this fungus, the production of heminthosporoside ...